


Cat-shaped Robots; A guide to Programming and Operating. And Endless Debugging. Volume II. By Reeve Tuesti

by sanctum_c



Series: Cat-shaped Robots; A guide to Programming and Operating [2]
Category: Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997)
Genre: Cats, Computer Programming, Gen, Humor, Humorous Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:13:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25903381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctum_c/pseuds/sanctum_c
Summary: “What is it with you and cats?” Cait Sith strangely did not reply; he lay inert, his new programming transferring across.Cat obsession was a weird, weird bug. Previously there seemed to be some corruption in the robot’s visual memory which meant the request for multiple objects happened to match the visual library for cat-shaped objects – Wutai having employed some obscure armour type in the past; hence its inclusion. Also a strange issue with Cait Sith catching sight of itself in a reflective surface. Both bugs at least made some sense, though remained annoying. And now a perfect opportunity had arisen to test the autonomous capability and newly debugged code; tracking down Avalanche.Reeve is pretty sure he's fixed Cait Sith's cat fixation. Pretty sure.
Series: Cat-shaped Robots; A guide to Programming and Operating [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1879846
Comments: 43
Kudos: 36





	1. Sector Seven Spycraft

Three weeks of debugging and commenting out huge swathes of stolen code.

Two weeks of new pattern recognition and replacing seemingly endless kill targets with an instruction to observe.

After; changes and practice for verbal command training and limited test runs in and around the Shinra building. Cait Sith managed to roam the plaza near the Shinra building without detection and with only the one instance of trying to steal a plushie cat from a toddler sat with her mother near the fountain.

“What is it with you and cats?” Cait Sith strangely did not reply; he lay inert, his new programming transferring across.

Cat obsession was a weird, weird bug. Previously there seemed to be some corruption in the robot’s visual memory which meant the request for multiple objects happened to match the visual library for cat-shaped objects – Wutai having employed some obscure armour type in the past; hence its inclusion. Also a strange issue with Cait Sith catching sight of itself in a reflective surface. Both bugs at least made some sense, though remained annoying. And now a perfect opportunity had arisen to test the autonomous capability and newly debugged code; tracking down Avalanche.

A growing threat to Shinra, though hard not to have some sympathy for the group and their plight – especially given plenty of Shinra’s own environmental and science division reports essentially corroborated their stance. Mako power was not only shockingly finite, adopted under astonishingly short-sighted ambitions but the implications of processing too much did not bear thinking about.

Not much he could do; leaking to the press was futile given the editor of the Midgar newspaper reported right back to the President via the corporate structure. Leaking to Avalanche would merely confirm what they already knew. In either case, far too great a risk of someone connecting the dots and everything leading, inexorably, back to him. Firing was the least of his worries; Shinra’s attitude to the disloyal was an open secret – far too likely to have a surprise and definitively final visit from a Turk.

Cait Sith beeped; the new program's transfer was complete. He disconnected the robot. Okay. New test. There was no meeting today; he had checked every hour on the hour – and the president’s secretary probably now thought he was hitting on her or something. Might make things awkward – and hopefully she was not about to mention it to her boss. Getting his name known in the secretary pool was not a bad thing, but- He shook his head. Not the time.

At least there was almost no chance of Cait Sith ensnaring another cat. And for today, no urgent work so he could keep watch and intervene if Cait Sith did something stupid.

The robot finished powering up. “Okay Cait Sith. I want you to make your way to lower plate Sector Seven and observe the population without being seen.”

“Understood.” Cait Sith saluted and leapt from the table.

Reeve slouched back in his chair and peered at the tiny screen built into the remote as Cait Sith darted out of the room and through the Shinra building.

One thing to send a robot to do remote reconnaissance. Another to sit through the hours and hours of travel involved in sending something so small as Cait Sith to the slums. Endless peering around corners, rushing from one hiding spot to another. Kind of tempting to build a teeny, tiny parachute for the robot and get him to hop off into a plate-gap instead of enduring an interminable train ride and every stop in between.

Still; at least the robot made it to Sector Seven a little over an hour later and did not get distracted, lost or noticed.

New problem: the slums were dingy and dark - something obvious in hindsight. Many areas fell into complete blackness on the monitor.

Mental note; improve low light capabilities. Reeve brought the remote closer and squinted.

Cait Sith avoided the pools of darkness sensibly and stuck to the brighter – if still dim – shadows.

At least the shadows should only contain human threats. Lower Plate Sector Seven’s most distinguishing feature was the astonishing low level of monster attacks within its confines. Next lowest was Five – which made a bit more sense given how much attention the Turks extolled on it for whatever reason. Not clear what to attribute the more relaxed attitude of this sector. Something to look into.

Cait Sith was skulking near a bar – Seventh Heaven – when a loud yowl erupted from the headphones on the remote.

Must be a cat-

His jolt of surprise at the noise cracked the remote against his nose and jostled it out of his grip. Reeve’s attention split between holding his sore nose and grabbing for the remote. His right hand misjudged the distance by a fraction and thus knocked the remote further out of reach. Another grab and he knocked it clean over his desk onto the mercifully thick carpet beyond. He scrambled for it fearing the worst.

All the load indicators on Cait Sith indicated he was carrying something. More annoyed yowling burst from the headphones. Reeve took control and pushed Cait Sith’s arms apart. A fierce hissing accompanied a black and white cat sprinting away from Cait Sith. Reeve sighed. What this time? How had it happened again?


	2. On the Trail of the Unknown Ex-SOLDIER

Mako reactors were assuredly outside of Reeve’s area of expertise. But the recent violent destruction of two created significant structural damage to the surrounding area on both levels of the city. This in turn necessitated his division get involved. A great deal of Mako power detail remained classified and he was not privy to what was going on, how Avalanche had breached reactor security, how much of the reactor was still standing and so on. The last point lead to a few arguments given he needed to plan for disruption to eight separate sectors before any reconstruction work could commence.

Seemingly a component of Avalanche’s plan to produce the largest nuisance given the devastation wrought. Canny. But the energy division insisted they would oversee the reactor reconstructive work and thus maintain their guard over all the proprietary secrets Shinra held.

And perhaps Reeve might have spent his time cursing under his breath at the state of the sectors and how Shinra seemed unable to prevent a guerrilla outfit from doing such damage. Until he learned of the SOLIDER. Correction: Ex-SOLDIER. There was some confusion over this on the reports. Some of the survivors of the reactor attacks reported a SOLIDER there – complete with the tell-tale glowing eyes. Used a Buster sword, wore the uniform, fought like a brigade.

Sounded like a SOLDIER.

But no one had any idea who he was. Which was not entirely strange. SOLDIER was a mystery all itself outside of Heidegger’s update reports. Hard for anyone outside of the division to be sure how many SOLDIERs there were or how many reached each rank – details beyond the President’s caring, or perhaps beyond something deemed notable for anyone else. Possibly beyond Heidegger’s caring too. No way to know how many former members existed outside Shinra’s control.

But this particular Ex-SOLDIER somehow did not fit inside the expectations and Junon clammed up when anyone touched on the topic. Something was wrong, something illogical. And this mystery on top of the other issues seemingly contributed to the secret slipping out and reaching Reeve’s ears.

Too much time had already passed, but there was still a plausible window of investigation. The Ex-SOLDIER was initially considered a casualty of the Reactor Five explosion; eye witnesses put him plummeting from the bridge connecting the plates of Sectors Four and Five. Until Reno called in an excuse; Hojo’s long lapsed pet project had slipped through his fingers. Again.

An expected report. The coda was a surprise: a SOLDIER, seemingly ranked First Class, helped with the specimen’s evasion.

Too many meetings Reeve needed to be in but still the report piqued his curiosity. Heidegger had angrily denounced the idea of a rogue SOLDIER only two days earlier when survivors of Reactor One reported his presence. For the Turks to corroborate indicated something more was up. Reeve had to know.

Cait Sith, technically now fully functional and less feline-obsessed, was still something of a risk. If only Reeve could be sure it was completely non-obsessed. No time and limited trials had seen the robot behave as expected. A good indicator but not perfect; it had managed similar displays of restraint before.

Nothing for it though; either he could send Cait Sith out and hope for the best or see another of Shinra’s economies of truth eclipse whatever was truly going on in the ideological war brewing within the city.

“I want you to hunt down the Ex-SOLDIER last seen in Sector Five. And please do it right.” Unlikely his plea would help; Cait Sith snapped a salute at his words and scurried out of the office.

Now all he had to do was try and concentrate on work. Easier said than done.

Despite the time the journey would take, he could not help periodic glimpses at the remote. Roughly every two minutes. Here was Cait Sith scurrying along the halls of the Shinra building. Here he was crossing the plaza.

Reeve’s heart lurched when Cait Sith’s gaze settled onto a cat for an extended period of seconds. His fingers twitched, ready to intercept and take over, uncomfortably aware how close the next meeting was and-

Cait Sith moved on.

This was exhausting.

Difficult to check during the meeting, but he took the risk and kept an eye on progress. Cait Sith made it down to the slums and slipped through the shadowy streets. Best to proceed from the SOLDIER’s last known whereabouts; right below the Mako reactor. This was a run-down – if still solid – church. Inside all signs pointed to a good possibility the SOLDIER had gone straight through the roof and into a patch of flowers.

Flowers? In the slums? No way to make the robot linger despite this affront to conventional wisdom; he was surreptitiously checking the remote under cover of Hojo’s presentation of some new experimental procedure he was obscenely proud of. Need to explore this place in more detail later; the meeting turned to Reeve a little after and he lost track of the robot.

The meeting dragged on. And on. The president was weirdly concerned with Sector Seven. Reeve had to run down all assets and notable facilities existing on both the upper and lower plates. How much Shinra expended on the upper plate development, infrastructure links for the outer plates and so on.

Other departments had input too; energy expenditure and costs given the loss of two reactors so far. Some conjecture about issues if the Mako pipes or power lines suffered disruption and how the back-ups operated, but to do so would require a decidedly different circumstance than the loss of a reactor. In fact, the only-

A lull in the meeting and Reeve checked the remote.

What was...?

The image took some time to resolve. Garish colours; overly bright yellows and pinks. Haze in the air. Movements in the fore-ground. Not a cat but- Reeve’s eyes widened and he hastily hid the remote away. As if the device itself would not provoke as many reactions as the sensible question of why he was watching an older couple having sex. And now the décor made a kind of sense; somehow Cait Sith had gotten into the Honey Bee Inn.


	3. Out there, there's a world outside of Midgar

Life had changed immensely in under a week. To think Mako reactors exploding would be the lower end of the madness.

Reeve’s head still reeled from the succession of events. President Shinra ordering the Turks to drop the Sector Seven plate – without any kind of warning – onto the slums below. No evacuation, no chance of survival. For the President to die a mere day later felt almost like an inevitable retort by the universe for the grotesqueries of his actions and his utter callousness in the aftermath.

Sandwiched between those events was so much more confusion.

Tseng, astonishingly, returned Hojo’s long-sought after specimen. Alarmingly this was an attractive 20-something and not some strange creature fitting in all too well with Midgar’s never officially acknowledged indigenous monster population. And less than an hour after the meeting on the subject, the Turks apprehended Avalanche inside the Shinra building trying to rescue the woman. The resistance group the plate-drop blame should have fallen on and terminally quell not only survived in some capacity but had broken into Hojo’s lab on the 68th floor.

Wonders would never cease. They were not responsible for the President’s death. Or at least according to the sole eye-witness to what transpired between Avalanche’s detainment and Rufus Shinra’s arrival.

Reeve rubbed his temples.

Sephiroth. A name only ever used in passing and with a distinct feeling of loss attached to it. The man five years dead had entered the Shinra building via a route unknown and slain the President. Or at least a convincing look-a-like performed the execution. Hard to argue with the savage arc of what appeared to be the Masamune found pinning the President to his desk. And Palmer’s wide-eyed terror in the aftermath.

Rufus was at least able articulate the moments after – the new boss had briefly met with Reeve earlier in the day, but called a whole other board meeting as part of his new control over the company. More meetings. Though perhaps the new president would be receptive to his rebuilding schedule. Depended on who might turn his ear first; Heidegger was unlikely to gain easy sway – his longevity previously assured thanks solely to his time in the President’s company. But unwise to discount Scarlet who could play her own games well enough. And Hojo might profess to not care, but if Rufus was anything like his father, it would not take much to sell him on his typical flights of fancy.

But what about Reeve? There was an opening here for real change. While Reeve was part of the executive board, actual power within the company remained with the President. Now he was gone and his son would take over. An opportunity. Assuming the son was receptive to outside views.

Other issues to worry about. Avalanche had compounded their brief visit to the building by causing not only more damage during their escape but totalling another of Heidegger’s big robotics projects. Twice now the much vaunted culmination of Heidegger’s alternative to SOLDIER had fallen thanks to one solitary ex-SOLDIER and a number of civilians with varying degrees of combat skills. First Air Buster, now Motorball.

Some comments within the stolen code made clear Motorball shared programming with Air Buster. Meaning, in turn, they shared a common ancestry with Cait Sith. An omen or merely the programming was not fit for combative purposes? Time would tell.

Working within Shinra was not cut-throat enough for Reeve to consider these two huge robotics disasters a deliberate failing – of Hojo somehow interfering and exposing the robotic division’s inherent limitations to refocus on SOLDIER. What concrete thing could Hojo seek? A replacement for Sephiroth? The man was still focused so much on his myths to have much care for day to day life. Though if Sephiroth was somehow around-

Reeve shook his head. Avalanche was the focus. A lot of hostility within the company towards the group. Once abstract, now more personal – a lot of knee-jerk assumptions they bore responsibility for the mass slaughter culminating in the President’s death. But- Things were not so simple. Avalanche broke into the building stealthily and fought nothing but a handful of guards. They killed a few of Hojo’s research projects – though hard to feel sorry for any of them. For them to only after engage in a bloody massacre after their capture seemed implausible.

But Avalanche also survived in the aftermath of the slaughter. As much as Palmer insisted otherwise, it was not hard for many to conclude Sephiroth was a front, and Avalanche bore sole responsibility. A lot of Shinra were angry. Heidegger was furious and sent the Turks out to pursue both Avalanche and Sephiroth.

Last sightings put Avalanche headed towards Kalm. An easy spot for Reeve to intervene and catch-up. Spy work! The whole purpose behind Cait Sith. The Turks might be a terrible kept secret within Midgar, but outside of it people would be less sure. Except for Avalanche. Cait Sith would help immeasurably with attention focused on Tseng’s goons. Slight nuisance delay in pursuit; so much of the morning catching up on the events of yesterday, increased security checks, multiple clean-ups and succession processes.

Initial reports from the Turks put Avalanche still in town by the time Cait Sith made it over there. An unavoidable way-point to fleeing Midgar on-foot. Oddly also the direction a curious black-cloaked figure stumbled. Something about stumbling and cloak did not mesh with the notion of Sephiroth after his alleged murder-spree, but was still treated as the best lead the Turks had.

Sephiroth – or whoever this black-caped person turned out to be – was the Turks’s issue. Reeve was here for intelligence on Avalanche.

Disappointing. Too much time expended; Avalanche rented two rooms at the inn and now slept. So much for information gathering. A blink. Wait. If it was dark there- The clock on his desk indicated it was 1am. So many reports half-done or ignored while he played spy and time slipped completely away. With a frustrated mutter, he set Cait Sith to autonomous and started shutting his computer down, the hard drive thrashing as it saved his open documents. Some sleep to be had before returning in the morning.

An idle glance at the remote before he left the office. Something flickered in the darkness. A spark? No, a flame. It swept from side-to-side. A fire. He should warn someone. Somehow. The flame drew closer. Wait. Cait Sith was advancing on the flame. It flicked and twisted. Like no flame Reeve had ever seen before. There was a murky mass nearby, a reddish chunk of darkness. And Cait Sith was in capture mode.

Reeve swore and switched to manual control, backing the robot away from the creature – whatever it was.

Wait, there was a report about something stolen from Hojo’s lab. What was with Avalanche? A horrible idea formed of a basic shape – and why Cait Sith stalked it.


	4. Sabbatical in the Office. Sort of

An odd sense of time-off at work the last week or so.

Much of this Reeve would attribute to Heidegger's absence. Always the best times; the man – despite his fire and fury and with literal full control over the armed forces of Shinra – spent little time in Junon. Which made sense given the foothold his position within the organisation required; no way to bend the President’s ear if he was not in Midgar. Thus, Heidegger would stay out of Junon wherever possible until forced to actually go back to the base and deal with his duties.

Heidegger’s trips never lasted long and never allowed Reeve enough time to get comfortable given the opportunity to not suffer through the man’s gloating laugh. Shame Scarlet never went anywhere.

This time seemed different though.

Rufus – more his father’s son than many expected – took to the company with ease. Not clear if Heidegger’s swift co-opting to accompany him on a tour of his domain was a reward or punishment. In either case it got Gya-ha-ha out of the way and allowed Reeve to actually relax and only suffer Kya-ha-ha at thankfully irregular intervals. The unexpected bonus was Hojo – of all people – was actually on leave. Hojo; who only seemed to shuffle out of his lab for meetings and might live there for all Reeve knew. Best not to think about the perpetual rumours the man never slept or ever stopped his ongoing research.

Fewer random lock-downs and warnings of a specimen escape. And enough time the sting of the massacre had faded. The company – especially Rufus – was keen to move on and not let Sephiroth’s actions faze them. Reeve could almost raise a glass to the man for making life here more palatable – not a sentiment to make publicly. But Palmer was still here. Scarlet was still here. And eventually Rufus and Heidegger would be back with all the associated drama.

Sector Seven was still a snarled mess of steel and debris. And without Rufus to authorise the clean-up, nothing happened. The sector remained a gaping hole in the upper plate. Access to the reactor was now via a temporary sky-bridge.

And Avalanche still pursued a dead man. A dead man with a habit of getting sighted over and over again.

Confused sightings – and there seemed to be a tendency to conflate two separate circumstances together. People clung to black as Sephiroth’s colour; his departure from the standard SOLDIER uniform was justly famous and long ago excused; much like his rejection of standard issue weaponry. People saw a strange black cloaked figure stalking the land and assumed this was Sephiroth. There were other reports of someone specifically fitting the dead man’s description – though again debatable how many of these were genuine and how many inspired by Palmer’s loose-lipped interviews in the aftermath of the President’s death.

Focus. The Turks’ latest report had Avalanche moving on a similar path to Sephiroth. For a man who entered and left the Shinra building via a still unexplained vector to be so easily tracked was one of the innumerable recent mysteries.

The individual – whoever he might ultimately be – was last seen passing Fort Condor and on a direct path to Junon. Taking his time.

Junon. Depending on the timing he might arrive before Rufus. No need to warn the new president, the Turks’ report circulated internally and faxed to the Junon offices. Scarlet already informed Rufus via PHS in transit.

What could Sephiroth want? Why did Avalanche pursue? Why was Junon still reluctant to release any details of the ex-SOLDIER? His name was Cloud Strife according to records of detainment within the Shinra buildings, but attempts by both the Turks and, in a more roundabout way, Reeve both wound up rebuffed when requesting his service records. Sephiroth’s were always a secret – no one had much chance of prying into his past, but somehow now this other SOLDIER had a classified status too? Mysteries upon mysteries. And Junon offered a perfect opportunity to dig into them.

Avalanche should pass through. Sephiroth would be there. SOLDIER was there; was Sephiroth returning to his post but decided to slay the head of the company on the way? Reeve shook his head. Wherever circumstances went, Cait Sith would follow. Shame there was not more time to organise the robot’s deployment; like so many other occasions, Reeve had to send Cait Sith rushing through the halls. This time to reach the helicopters before the next rotation of the infantry headed out. But he made it, Cait Sith now loose in Junon. Now as long as no cats crossed his path-

The view on the remote pitched wildly, the ground vanishing below. What was-

“Got you!” an unfamiliar voice said. Wrenching the controls did nothing. The view whirled to reveal a haggard looking man in his mid-thirties in a beige jumpsuit. “Thought so. No collar. You’re coming to the pound.”

Reeve let his head thump against the desk.


	5. PHS 3

Relying on Cait Sith alone to spy was not working. Or at least not working anything like expectations.

Stealth also did not seem to be working.

Reeve made a rare trip to Junon and retrieved Cait Sith from the relevant cat sanctuary. Technically Cait Sith ought to be able to escape, but somehow the place’s security was tighter than Shinra’s and he had no choice but to make an in-person intervention. So many awkward questions if the staff continued to not notice the robot’s artificiality and if they tried to put him down.

Unfortunately adopting a cat from the pound was less than straight-forward. Cait Sith – in the presence of so many cats for an extended period of time – had become fond of them. Several of them. And despite Cait Sith's status as a product (mostly) of his creation, somehow the robot managed to shoot him a plaintive look. Should not have worked but did somehow. Which was how Reeve was now the proud owner of three kittens; ‘Ultimecia 9’, ‘PHS 3’ and – frustratingly - ‘Rufus Shinra 5’.

They all needed new names and fast. One more thing to worry about.

Avalanche long gone by now; last sighted in Costa del Sol. They had no vehicle and if the situation persisted would end up going along the old mining trails. Based on the last sightings of Sephiroth, their ghostly quarry would too. And, inevitably, their path would take them past the Gold Saucer-

A chance. A way to hide in plain sight. The giant Moogle mascot characters would be all over the place. And who would notice one specific instance was ridden by a strange cat? Cait Sith should have more debugging but- No time. Hasty rewrite to his software. Kludge together a purely functional robot matching a moogle’s proportions.

Any programming involving cats now replaced with a blanket routine of fortune telling. A simple lookup to a whole mass of text and astrology terms hammered into space with something at least coherent sounding when strung together.

Good enough.

Now to call in a favour to Reno, ready at last to return to active duty.

The newly augmented Cait Sith shipped to the Gold Saucer – and perhaps, for a change, Reeve would be ahead of the game.


End file.
